Sennen - Age of Denial (2010)

Submitted on Mon, 04/12/2010 - 20:27

Having purloined their name from a song title belonging to Ride, who borrowed it from a rugged Cornish cove, it’s no surprise Sennen have co-opted a sound that is far removed from their home in the Norwich fens. Expansive rather than parochial, ‘Age of Denial' straddles the Atlantic, assimilating US sun-drenched harmony pop while espousing shoegazey noise from these shores. At times they channel Spiritualized and take them some place new, like on gorgeous "Broken Promise", while at times they visit ground vigorously tromped by The Stone Roses. While they may deserve to be mentioned in the same breath as Animal Collective, they can also deviate, coming over like a baggy Byrds mishmash.

Sennen’s take on modern day ambient rock has earned them loads of glowing press and reviews..'Age of Denial' is the bands third album, recorded at the end of 2009 with producer Pat Collier (Primal Scream, House Of Love), and proves to be an eye-opening experience.

Early tracks like "With You" and "Falling Down" are snippets of East Anglian shoegaze at its best. Both are dreamy and deep and enough to justify impressive support slots with Ulrich Schnauss and Editors. "S.O.S." again touches the bands love of ambient indie, and comes across as a mellower A Place to Bury Strangers jamming with Spaceman 3. It’s only really the semi-twee pop of "‘A Little High" that goes someway to explaining the Teenage Fanclub’s reference on the bands press release.

The album's best quality is it just keeps giving, and each track flows neatly into each other ensuring its an invigorating listen throughout, with ‘"Can't See the Light" being its leading touch. A slow builder with stuck down a hole vocals and progressive drumming, then the distortion kicks in, before gathering pace culminating in a mesh of guitars fighting guitars over feedback. By the end you are just left with the task of cleaning yourself off.

So if you want to experience Sennen’s raucous shoegaze and mix of hushed vocals, swirling noise and wall-of-sound guitars to its maximum potential then go and buy yourself some big speakers, some very, very big speakers.

HIGHLY RECOMMENDED for all shoegaze kids.

Artist:

Sennen

Album:

Age of Denial

Album art:

Release date:

05.04.2010

Quality:

VBR V0

Tracklist:

1. Age of Denial
2. With You
3. A Little High
4. Falling Down
5. S.O.S.
6. Innocence
7. Red Horizon
8. Can't See The Light
9. Sleep Heavy Tonight
10. Sennen's Day Out
11. Broken Promise
12. Out of Our Depth